The Indiana Pacers are a professional basketball team based in Indianapolis, Indiana. They are members of the Central Division of the Eastern Conference of the National Basketball Association (NBA). The Pacers play their home games at Bankers Life Fieldhouse, which they share with their WNBA counterpart, the Indiana Fever, also owned by Herb Simon.

The Indiana Pacers began play in 1967 as members of the American Basketball Association (ABA), in which they won three championships and created a dynasty. In 1976, the Pacers moved from the ABA to the NBA. The financial strains from the move led to the ending of the Indiana dynasty and the beginnings of many struggles for the Pacers organization in the subsequent decade. The acquisition of Reggie Miller in 1987 marked the start of a long resurgence for the franchise that peaked with its appearance in the 2000 NBA Finals. The Pacers would miss the 2007 playoffs for the first time since 1997. They returned to the postseason in 2011.

In early 1967, a group of six investors (among them attorney Richard Tinkham, John DeVoe, Chuck DeVoe, sports agent Chuck Barnes and Indianapolis Star sports writer Bob Collins) pooled their resources to purchase a franchise in the proposed American Basketball Association.

Indiana (ⁱ/ɪndiˈænə/) is a US state, admitted to the United States as the 19th on December 11, 1816. It is located in the midwestern and Great Lakes regions of North America. Indiana is the 38th largest by area and the 15th most populous of the 50 United States. Indiana is the least extensive state in the continental US west of the Appalachian Mountains. Its capital and largest city is Indianapolis, the second largest of any state capital and largest state capital east of the Mississippi River.

Before it became a territory, varying cultures of indigenous peoples and historic Native Americans inhabited Indiana for thousands of years. Angel Mounds State Historic Site, one of the best preserved ancient earthwork mound sites in the United States, can be found in Southwestern Indiana near Evansville. Residents of Indiana are known as Hoosiers. The etymology of the word is disputed, but the leading theory as advanced by the Indiana Historical Bureau and the Indiana Historical Society has "Hoosier" originating from the upland South region of the U.S. as a derogatory slang term for a rough countryman, a country bumpkin.

Bradley Beal (born June 28, 1993) is an American college basketball player. After his freshman season for the University of Florida Gators men's basketball team, Beal announced he would enter the 2012 NBA Draft.

Beal attended Chaminade College Preparatory School in St. Louis, Missouri. He competed in the 2010 FIBA Under-17 World Championship for the USA, which won the championship with Beal averaging 18 points per game. During his senior year of high school, Beal averaged 32.5 points per game, 5.7 rebounds per game and 2.8 assists per game. At the end of Beal's senior season, he was named the 2011 Mr. Show-Me Basketball which recognized him as the top high school basketball player in the state of Missouri. He was also named the 2011 Gatorade National Player of the Year. According to ESPNU recruits, Beal was the fourth ranked recruit and second ranked shooting guard and he was also the fourth ranked recruit according to Rivals.com.

On November 30, 2009 Beal committed to the University of Florida.

Larry Joe Bird (born December 7, 1956) is a former American NBA basketball player and coach. Drafted into the NBA sixth overall by the Boston Celtics in 1978, Bird started at small forward and power forward for thirteen seasons, spearheading one of the NBA's most formidable frontcourts that included center Robert Parish and forward Kevin McHale. Due to chronic back problems, he retired as a player in 1992. Bird was voted to the NBA's 50th Anniversary All-Time Team in 1996 and inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in 1998. He served as head coach of the Indiana Pacers from 1997 to 2000. In 2003, he assumed the role of president of basketball operations for the Pacers, which he currently holds. He is the only person in NBA history to be named Most Valuable Player, Coach of the Year, and Executive of the Year.

Larry Bird was born in West Baden, Indiana, the son of Georgia (née Kerns) and Claude Joseph "Joe" Bird. He grew up in both West Baden and the adjacent town French Lick, which earned him the nickname "the Hick from French Lick" in his professional basketball career. Bird recalled how his mother would make do on the family's meager earnings: "If there was a payment to the bank due, and we needed shoes, she'd get the shoes, and then deal with them guys at the bank. I don't mean she wouldn't pay the bank, but the children always came first." According to Bird, his being poor as a child "motivates me to this day". He sometimes was sent to live with his grandmother due to the family's struggles. The Bird family's struggle with poverty was compounded by the alcoholism and personal difficulties of Joe Bird, who likely suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder from serving in the Korean War. Joe Bird committed suicide on February 3, 1975, when Larry was 18 years old.

Roy Denzil Hibbert (born December 11, 1986) is a Jamaican-American professional basketball player for the Indiana Pacers of the NBA. He plays at the center position, and graduated from Georgetown University in 2008. He was drafted 17th overall in the 2008 NBA Draft by the Toronto Raptors and was immediately traded to the Pacers on draft night. He has represented the Jamaican national team in international competition; he is eligible because his father was originally from Jamaica. On February 9, 2012, Hibbert was selected to his first All-Star Game as a reserve for the Eastern Conference.

Roy Hibbert was born in Queens, New York to Roy, Sr. and Patty Hibbert. His father is originally from Jamaica and his mother from Trinidad. The family moved to Adelphi, Maryland when Roy was 2. Around that time, the New York Post states that his parents introduced him to basketball after they had "tried to get him to play tennis, then golf, then the piano."

Hibbert attended Georgetown Prep in North Bethesda, Maryland. The team was coached by Dwayne Bryant, who had attended Georgetown University as a varsity basketball player. Bryant introduced the still-awkward Hibbert to the GU campus. Hibbert helped make Georgetown Prep's Little Hoyas co-champions of the Interstate Athletic Conference in 2004. Since Roy is an avid Pokémon fan, his teammates would often say, "Power up, big fella," to help him play harder.